Expense Reports Template

Managing team expenses, tracking budgets, and processing reimbursements can be complex and time-consuming. Bkper's Expense Reports template demonstrates how a Book can handle the complete expense management lifecycle using the fundamental principle of tracking resources as they flow between places.

The workflow is naturally embedded in the Book structure using core Bkper features. Transactions represent expense submissions, file attachments hold receipts, the Checked field serves as approval status, and custom properties enable policy enforcement. No specialized expense module is needed - everything works through the elegant flow of resources between Accounts.

Access the Expense Report Template in Bkper and then select Copy this book to create your own version. The template includes a pre-configured Account structure and sample Transactions that demonstrate the complete workflow.

Expense Report Template

Access the Team Member Report in Google Sheets and make a Copy of the Sheet to your Google Drive and follow the instructions on the First tab, to make the report for your own team.

Team Member report

The Expense Reports Book organizes Accounts into three Groups, each serving a specific role in the workflow.

Total Allocated Budget is an Asset Group (blue) containing individual budget allocation Accounts for each team member, such as Arun Allocated Budget or Daniella Allocated Budget. These are Asset Accounts that track each person's available funds throughout the period. When you look at these Accounts, you see exactly how much budget remains for each team member at any point in time.

Expenses is an Outgoing Group (red) containing category Accounts like Food, Lodging, Transportation, and Materials. These are Outgoing Accounts that track where money is being spent. By separating expenses into categories, you gain visibility into spending patterns across your team.

Budget allocation is an Incoming Group (green) that serves as the source for funding team budgets. This Incoming Account represents where the budget comes from when allocating budgets to team members. You can hide this Group from regular views since it's primarily used for administrative Transactions.

Reimbursement is an Incoming Account (green) that serves as the source for replenishing team member budgets after approved expenses. While Budget allocation funds the initial budget setup, Reimbursement represents the actual payment back to team members for their approved expenses. This separation provides clarity in your records—you can easily distinguish between initial budget allocations and ongoing reimbursements throughout the period. Like Budget allocation, you can hide this Account from regular views since it's primarily used for administrative Transactions.

The expense management cycle flows naturally through four stages, each represented by Transactions that move resources between Accounts.

At the start of each period, budgets are allocated to team members. You record a Transaction from the Budget allocation Account (green) to each team member's Allocated Budget Account. For example, if Arun receives a monthly budget of 5,000, you post:

09/01/2026 | 5,000.00 | Budget allocation | >> | Arun Allocated budget | Monthly budget allocation

This Transaction moves 5,000 into Arun's budget, making it available for expenses.

When team members incur expenses, they record Transactions from their Allocated Budget Account to the appropriate Expense category Account. The key is attaching the receipt using Bkper's file attachment feature. For example, when Arun pays for a hotel:

09/11/2026 | 1,060.00 | Arun Allocated budget | >> | Lodging | Contezza hotel #arun

The receipt image is attached to this Transaction, providing documentation for approval. Multiple expenses can be recorded throughout the period, each reducing the team member's available budget and increasing the category totals.

Managers review submitted expenses by examining Transactions and their attached receipts. When an expense meets policy requirements and has proper documentation, the manager checks ✅ the Transaction. This Checked status serves as the approval flag - only Checked Transactions will be reimbursed at period end. Unchecked Transactions remain pending until they are either Checked (approved).

Managers can send comments to the team members that have unchecked Transactions and ask them for receipts or other details about the incurred transactions.

On the first of the following month, approved expenses are reimbursed. You record a Transaction from the Budget allocation Account back to each team member's Allocated Budget Account, for the total amount of their Checked expenses. This resets their budget for the new period:

10/01/2026 | 1,136.39 | Budget allocation | >> | Arun Allocated budget | Budget reset - approved expenses

This amount represents only the approved expenses - any Unchecked Transactions are excluded from reimbursement until they are reviewed and Checked.

Here's a complete cycle showing how resources flow through the system.

The template is designed to be flexible and adapt to your team's specific policies and workflows.

Account Properties enable policy enforcement. You can add custom properties to team member Accounts defining spending limits:

These properties can guide manual approvals or enable Automated policy enforcement using AI agents, bots, or scripts. For example, a Bot could Automatically flag or reject Transactions that exceed category limits or send reimbursement orders to Payment Gateways.

Workflow variations are easy to implement through properties and Transactions. To distinguish personal card expenses from company card expenses, add a property like payment_method: personal_card to Transactions requiring reimbursement. To implement aging policies, you might configure automation that automatically dis-considers Unchecked Transactions older than three months.

Team members often incur expenses while traveling or working remotely, making it impractical to record detailed Transactions immediately. Bkper's mobile app transforms this challenge into a seamless workflow by enabling instant receipt capture with minimal effort from the team member.

When a team member makes a purchase, they simply take a photo of the receipt from within the Bkper mobile phone app and post the image with a brief description - perhaps just the vendor name or expense type. The Transaction is recorded in the Book but remains in an unposted state, waiting for review.

This is where Bkper Agent demonstrates its intelligence. The Agent analyzes the receipt image, extracting key information such as the amount, vendor name, date, and even interpreting the nature of the expense. Based on the Book's Account structure and historical patterns, the Agent suggests the appropriate categorization - whether it's Food, Lodging, Transportation, or another expense category. It auto-completes the Transaction details, transforming a simple photo and minimal text into a structured financial record.

The team member can review the Agent's suggestions and Post the Transaction immediately, or leave it unposted for later review. Alternatively, a team manager can review all unposted Transactions from team members, verify the Agent's categorization against the receipt image, make any necessary adjustments, and then post the Transactions in batch. This flexibility accommodates different trust levels and approval workflows within teams.

The combination of mobile receipt capture and AI-assisted completion dramatically reduces the burden on all team members. Instead of manually entering amounts, dates, categories, and descriptions while juggling receipts, they simply snap a photo and let the Agent handle the details. This approach captures expenses in real-time when they occur, reducing the risk of lost receipts and forgotten expenses, while maintaining the accuracy and structure required for proper Expense management.

While team members can view their budget status directly in the Book, many organizations create personalized dashboards using Google Sheets to provide a simplified view of expense information. These dashboards connect to the Book through Bkper Functions, displaying real-time data filtered to each team member's activities.

A typical dashboard shows the team member's allocated budget for the period, their available balance after recorded expenses, and total amount spent. The dashboard breaks down spending by expense category—Food, Transportation, Lodging, Materials—helping team members understand their spending patterns at a glance.

The most valuable feature is the pending approval section, which lists Transactions that have been recorded but remain Unchecked. Each pending Transaction displays its date, amount, description, and a direct link to view the details in Bkper. This visibility eliminates the need for team members to repeatedly ask managers "was my expense approved yet?" They simply check their dashboard to see which Transactions are still under review.

The dashboard requires minimal setup—connecting to the Book through its identifier and filtering data by team member name and date range. Once configured, the dashboard updates automatically as Transactions are recorded, posted, and Checked. Team members access their dashboard through any device with a web browser, making budget information available wherever they work.

This self-service approach reduces manager workload while giving team members the budget visibility they need to make informed spending decisions throughout the period.

Organizations frequently work with contractors, freelancers, or consultants who need to incur expenses against project budgets but shouldn't access the organization's broader financial information. Bkper handles this through permission controls that restrict what external members can see and do.

External members can be added to the Book with "post only" permission. This allows them to record Transactions—capturing expenses with receipts through the mobile workflow—while preventing them from viewing the Book's structure, other team members' activities, or financial details beyond their own expenses. They can document what they spend without seeing sensitive organizational data.

To provide external members with visibility into their budget status and approval progress, you can create personalized dashboards as described in the Team Member Dashboards section above. These dashboards show only the external member's allocated budget, submitted expenses, and approval status—a focused view without access to the broader Book.

When an external member's engagement ends, you remove their "post only" Book access and revoke their dashboard access. Their historical Transactions remain in the Book for audit purposes, but they can no longer record expenses or view information. This clean separation supports temporary contractor relationships while maintaining complete financial records.

The Checked status is central to this workflow. When a Transaction is Checked, it signals approval and eligibility for reimbursement. Unchecked Transactions remain pending. Eventually Transactions can be Trashed and considered rejected, excluding them from calculations.

Team members benefit from real-time budget visibility. They can view their Allocated Budget Account balance directly in the Book to see available funds, or check a personalized dashboard showing budget status, spending by category, and pending approvals. This transparency promotes spending awareness and responsible budget management.

Receipts should be attached to Transactions before considering approval. The file attachment feature creates a permanent link between the expense record and its supporting documentation, establishing a complete audit trail.

The monthly reimbursement cycle aligns naturally with payroll and accounting periods, but you can adjust the timing to match your organization's needs. Some teams reimburse weekly, others quarterly - the workflow adapts to any schedule.

Every Transaction maintains a complete audit trail showing who spent what amount, when it occurred, which category it belongs to, and whether it was approved. This transparency supports both operational management and compliance requirements.

Communication via Comments stays within the context of the book and is part of the historic reference, even of Trashed Transactions.

The template demonstrates that Bkper handles sophisticated expense management workflows using only core features - Books, Accounts, Groups, Transactions, file attachments, the Checked field, and custom properties to define policies. By understanding resources as movements between places, complex workflows become simple, intuitive, and powerful.